Bottom Line:
However, within each study region we found no difference in fungal community structure between management types.Our results also showed region specific significant correlation patterns between the dominant ectomycorrhizal fungal genera.This suggests that soil fungal communities are region-specific but nevertheless composed of functionally diverse and complementary taxa.

ABSTRACTFungi are important members of soil microbial communities with a crucial role in biogeochemical processes. Although soil fungi are known to be highly diverse, little is known about factors influencing variations in their diversity and community structure among forests dominated by the same tree species but spread over different regions and under different managements. We analyzed the soil fungal diversity and community composition of managed and unmanaged European beech dominated forests located in three German regions, the Schw√§bische Alb in Southwestern, the Hainich-D√ľn in Central and the Schorfheide Chorin in the Northeastern Germany, using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA pyrotag sequencing. Multiple sequence quality filtering followed by sequence data normalization revealed 1655 fungal operational taxonomic units. Further analysis based on 722 abundant fungal OTUs revealed the phylum Basidiomycota to be dominant (54%) and its community to comprise 71.4% of ectomycorrhizal taxa. Fungal community structure differed significantly (p‚Č§0.001) among the three regions and was characterized by non-random fungal OTUs co-occurrence. Soil parameters, herbaceous understory vegetation, and litter cover affected fungal community structure. However, within each study region we found no difference in fungal community structure between management types. Our results also showed region specific significant correlation patterns between the dominant ectomycorrhizal fungal genera. This suggests that soil fungal communities are region-specific but nevertheless composed of functionally diverse and complementary taxa.

pone-0047500-g001: Relative distribution of the fungal phyla found in this study in the age-class (AC) and unmanaged natural (NF) forests in the Schorfheide-Chorin (S), Hainich-D√ľn (H), and Schw√§bische Alb (A) study regions.

Mentions:
Taxonomic assignment of the abundant fungal OTUs found in this study indicated members of the phylum Basidiomycota (390 OTUs/54%) as the most dominant, followed by Ascomycota (261 OTUs/36.1%), Mucoromycotina (24 OTUs/3.3%), Glomeromycota (7 OTUs/1%), Chytridiomycota (4 OTUs/0.6%) and Entomophthoromycotina (1 OTU/0.1%). The remaining 35 OTUs (4.8%) were assigned to the kingdom level according to the NCBI nucleotide taxonomy and represented unknown or un-annotated environmental sequences (Figure 1). In general the vast majority of the fungal OTUs were assigned to the major taxonomic levels of subphylum (647 OTUs, 89.6%), class (622 OTUs, 86.2%), order (624 OTUs, 86.4%), Family (567 OTUs, 78.5%) and genus (583 OTUs, 80.6%).

pone-0047500-g001: Relative distribution of the fungal phyla found in this study in the age-class (AC) and unmanaged natural (NF) forests in the Schorfheide-Chorin (S), Hainich-D√ľn (H), and Schw√§bische Alb (A) study regions.

Mentions:
Taxonomic assignment of the abundant fungal OTUs found in this study indicated members of the phylum Basidiomycota (390 OTUs/54%) as the most dominant, followed by Ascomycota (261 OTUs/36.1%), Mucoromycotina (24 OTUs/3.3%), Glomeromycota (7 OTUs/1%), Chytridiomycota (4 OTUs/0.6%) and Entomophthoromycotina (1 OTU/0.1%). The remaining 35 OTUs (4.8%) were assigned to the kingdom level according to the NCBI nucleotide taxonomy and represented unknown or un-annotated environmental sequences (Figure 1). In general the vast majority of the fungal OTUs were assigned to the major taxonomic levels of subphylum (647 OTUs, 89.6%), class (622 OTUs, 86.2%), order (624 OTUs, 86.4%), Family (567 OTUs, 78.5%) and genus (583 OTUs, 80.6%).

Bottom Line:
However, within each study region we found no difference in fungal community structure between management types.Our results also showed region specific significant correlation patterns between the dominant ectomycorrhizal fungal genera.This suggests that soil fungal communities are region-specific but nevertheless composed of functionally diverse and complementary taxa.

ABSTRACTFungi are important members of soil microbial communities with a crucial role in biogeochemical processes. Although soil fungi are known to be highly diverse, little is known about factors influencing variations in their diversity and community structure among forests dominated by the same tree species but spread over different regions and under different managements. We analyzed the soil fungal diversity and community composition of managed and unmanaged European beech dominated forests located in three German regions, the Schw√§bische Alb in Southwestern, the Hainich-D√ľn in Central and the Schorfheide Chorin in the Northeastern Germany, using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA pyrotag sequencing. Multiple sequence quality filtering followed by sequence data normalization revealed 1655 fungal operational taxonomic units. Further analysis based on 722 abundant fungal OTUs revealed the phylum Basidiomycota to be dominant (54%) and its community to comprise 71.4% of ectomycorrhizal taxa. Fungal community structure differed significantly (p‚Č§0.001) among the three regions and was characterized by non-random fungal OTUs co-occurrence. Soil parameters, herbaceous understory vegetation, and litter cover affected fungal community structure. However, within each study region we found no difference in fungal community structure between management types. Our results also showed region specific significant correlation patterns between the dominant ectomycorrhizal fungal genera. This suggests that soil fungal communities are region-specific but nevertheless composed of functionally diverse and complementary taxa.